October 30, 2023 was a historic day for the discipline of family medicine, with a momentous gathering of over 140 visionaries, innovators, and leaders in the field of family medicine for the National Family Medicine Research Summit. This summit was the culmination of several years of visioning, led by Dr Irfan Asif in his role as ADFM Research Development Committee Chair, and a full year of active planning and discussions with many individuals and groups, including partnership with the executive committees of NAPCRG and ADFM, as well as deep engagement with the elected and executive leadership of the 8 major national family medicine organizations who comprise the Family Medicine Leadership Consortium (FMLC): AAFP, AAFP-Foundation, ABFM, ACOFP, AFMRD, ADFM, NAPCRG, and STFM.
The initial stages of this process were to create a series of goals and objectives for a strategic plan for expanding research in the discipline using as much inclusive input as possible, including many meetings with various partners, a series of interviews and focus groups, and an engagement survey. More about the initial process can be found in “Toward a Unified and Collaborative Future: Creating a Strategic Plan for Family Medicine Research,”1 and more about the context and reasoning behind the need for this plan and Summit are described in, “A Milestone for Promoting Research in Family Medicine.”2
The strategic planning process undertaken by these Family Medicine leaders has crafted a vision for research that is nothing short of transformational. It envisions research that is “whole-person, family, and community centered and improves health by enhancing health promotion, improving care for chronic diseases and advancing healthcare delivery, while including cross-cutting themes of health equity, technology, and team science.”
The blueprint for this vision involves 3 key strategic priorities and 5 objectives under each:
Pathways and Mentorship Programming: Creating a robust system to mentor and guide emerging researchers in family medicine.
Funding and Advocacy Efforts: Ensuring sufficient resources and support for groundbreaking research in the field.
Infrastructure Development: Building the necessary infrastructure to facilitate cutting-edge research initiatives.
Under each of these priority areas are a series of 5 objectives. The priorities and objectives of the plan are shown in Table 1.
National Research Strategy for Family Medicine: 2024-2030
Following the review of this plan by the FMLC organizations, a Summit Planning Committee was given the task of creating an agenda for the October 30th Summit that would help move these priorities forward with possible action steps for each objective. After several months of planning, the final Summit agenda embraced innovative approaches to participatory engagement and each of the 3 priority areas had a breakout group, which each had 3 rounds of discussion throughout the course of the day. These discussions utilized liberating structures, specifically, the 1-2-table-all format, to give all participants a chance to speak. Following this group brainstorming, each round of discussion ended with real-time prioritization of action steps, followed by immediate polling.
This collaborative approach resulted in the development and prioritization of action steps aligned with the objectives outlined in the strategic plan. These are as follows in Table 1. These action steps are being shared broadly, and specifically with the FMLC organizations who will be taking the lead in each of these areas. They will also be tasked with creating measures of success and a timeline for each of these areas.
In addition to starting to move these forward, there are several other immediate next steps:
1) ADFM and NAPCRG will begin action planning for objectives that were not discussed at the Summit
2) A special issue of a journal is underway, with more than 20 articles on background and context that ties into the areas of the strategic plan for framing and a tangible product that members of the discipline will be able to hand others
3) We will reconvene with the FMLC organizations at the next FMLC meeting in February, 2024, to assess progress and discuss additional needs for moving each objective forward.
We would like to express appreciation to the ABFM-Foundation for funding the Summit and the planning process, to Clarus Consulting Group for their work on the plan and the Summit with us, and the members of the planning committee, who are listed below, for their time and effort to make the event a success!
Research Summit Planning Committee
Irf Asif, MD, Chair, UAB & Chair of ADFM Research Development Committee; Amanda Weidner, MPH, Executive Director, ADFM; Tom Vansaghi, PhD, Executive Director, NAPCRG; Sam Elwood, Project and Data Manager, ADFM; Dave Schneider, MD, Chair, UT Southwestern & ADFM President; Miranda Moore, PhD, STFM; Dean Seehusen, MD, Chair, Medical College of Georgia; Peter Seidenberg, MD, Chair, Louisiana State University Health - Shreveport; Viv Ramsden, RN, PhD, University of Saskatchewan, & Outgoing NAPCRG President; Richelle Koopman, MD, MS, University of Missouri & NAPCRG Vice President; Santina Wheat, MD, MPH, Northwestern Feinberg & AFMRD Member-At-Large; Kaisani Afsha Rais, MD, Medical City Arlington Family Medicine Residency Program; Warren Newton, MD, MPH, ABFM President; Christina Hester, PhD, MPH, Vice President of Research, DARTNet Institute; Caroline Richardson, MD, Chair, Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University & Annals of Family Medicine Editor; Diana Rubio, MD, Georgetown & ADFM Resident Rep; Beverly Onyekwuluje, MD, Past AFMRD Resident Rep; Yalda Jabbapour, MD, Director of Robert Graham Center; Gerardo Moreno, MD, MS, UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine & ABFM Board; Tochi Iroku-Malize, MD, MPH, MBA, Chair, the Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell & AAFP President; Jay Shubrook, DO, Touro University California College of Osteopathic Medicine
- © 2024 Annals of Family Medicine, Inc.
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